Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Video of the Atheist Monument Dedication

Here’s the full video of the dedication ceremony for the atheist monument in Bradford County, Florida. The speeches begin at about the 5 minute mark, starting with some local politician pissing on the whole thing by giving a mini-sermon, unfortunately. The rest is very good though. And at the end, you’ll see Eric Hovind and some other guy interrupt the ceremony and start to preach.

I saw the Mayor (I think the first speaker was the Mayor) standing way in the back during the rest of the ceremony and I thought about going over to him and telling him that I thought his need to insert the “As for me and my house, we will serve the lord” crap was offensive. I didn’t and I wish now I had.

Write your mayor a letter. Inform him the meaning of this quip has him disqualifying himself from office. That if he’s going to submit to religious dogma at the expense of protecting people’s religious freedom rights in his jurisdiction, then he’s violating his oath of office, in violation of the Constitution, and infringing on the liberty rights of other people by seeking to exploit government power to promote his religion to the detriment of other people’s liberty rights. That’s not what we do in a free society; that is what we see from fascists and theocrats.